Directed Drawing: Charlie Brown in 9 Steps!

Tonight my son Garyn and I are going on a Mommy-Son Trip to the movies, to see the opening of Peanuts!  Never in my life would I ever have thought I would be taking my 8 year-old son to a movie with characters I fell in love with many years ago!  So this post is a tribute to Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang!

I know, I know... You can't draw.  That's what's ringing in through your mind right now.  But, I will break it down so YES you can!  So go grab a pencil and paper and I'll wait here...

Ok, let's get started!  I'm going to describe the directions exactly how I would for my students to give you an idea of how you might teach your own kids to draw Charlie!

1.  First draw the head.  The head is an oval.  Then draw two "C" shapes for the ears.  Notice that the right ear is a backwards "C" shape!

2.  Next, let's draw the nose.  Notice two things... The shape of the nose is another letter "C".  Secondly, notice that the nose starts slightly ABOVE the ears.  Now you try.  Then draw two small dots on both sides of the nose.  Look where my dots are and do the same on your paper.

3.  Now lets draw two eyebrows over the eyes.  Notice that they are the shapes of small frowns.  After you draw those, we need to draw Charlie's hair.  His hair is like a curly-q or pig's tail!  Look at mine and now you try.

4.  The next step is to draw Charlie's smile.  Notice that his smile curls up on both ends.  It's almost the entire width of his head.  Look at mine carefully and you try to draw it on your paper.

5.  Now we'll draw two parallel lines straight down for his neck.  Then notice his collar.  It kind of looks like two mountains joined together.  You try on your paper.

6.  The next step is to finish drawing the bottom of his collar.  These are smile shapes.  Then draw two lines down from his collar, that are slightly curved.

7.  Let's draw Charlie's sleeve and arm.  His sleeve is an "L" shape.  Then draw a line straight down to make his arm.  Connect the bottom of his shirt with a straight line.

8.  His other arm is very similar.  Draw a straight line down that is close to his body.  Then draw a horizontal line across to make his sleeve/arm.

9.  One last step!  We have to draw Charlie's famous zig-zag on his shirt.  Look carefully at mine and try to make it on your paper.

Ok, blog readers!  How did you do?  Did you draw Charlie Brown perfectly or what?  See, I told you I could teach you how to draw!  The last step with your kids would be to color Charlie...

As a bonus, I created these writing printables you can use to follow up with the directed drawing activity!  Just click the pictures below to download them!

Thanks for drawing with me today friends!

I'd love to know if this will be useful for you in your classroom in the comments below!
Until Next Time,

Squaredy Squirrel Directed Drawing...Yes You Can! I'll Teach You!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!!

Drawing is one of my passions... I don't know what I'd do without having this hobby in my life.  It's calming to me and one of the ways I can express myself freely.  Drawing is a great way to build confidence within your students, build motor skills, and help them to give more details in their writing!  

One way to bring drawing into your classroom, especially if you can't draw, is to do Directed Drawing lessons.  These are drawing lessons, broken down into very easy steps.  These allow all your students to be successful, and it makes you look like Picasso!

So let's give it a try!  I'll give you a second to go get a pencil and paper...

Ok, here we go!

The first step is to draw the ears and the top of the head.  But if you're doing a directed drawing lesson with your kids, I would say this:  

"Ok, let's start with the head.  To draw the ears, first draw two hills.  Then connect them with a frown."

If you just tell the kids to draw two ears and the top of the head, you may get something that doesn't even look like this, but still may look two ears and a head.  Wording it like that just makes it more visual and auditory for your kids, especially those that learn like that.

For the rest of the directions, I'll word it as I would with my students.

The second step is to draw the entire head.  Now watch me first. (You draw the head on board or projector, as students watch.)  To draw this, you'll make two half circles, one on each side of the face.  Make sure to pay attention to how you draw the chin!  The chin should look like a small happy face.

For step 3, we're going to add 3 parts to the squirrel's head.  Let's start with the ears.  You're going to draw 2 L shapes; one of them will be backwards.  The second thing we'll draw is the eyes.  Notice that the eyes are really far apart and almost touch the outside of the head.  Don't forget the eyebrows, which look like two frowns!  And finally, the nose.  This is a unique shape. (I wouldn't try to describe this.  I usually draw it and make some silly sound.  For some reason, this helps the kids.  After I do that, you will hear 20 of the same silly sounds while they're drawing it on their own paper!)

The next step is to draw the teeth.  His teeth are a bunch of little rectangles, touching each other.  But instead of drawing each rectangle, lets draw the big one on the outside first.  Now let's go back inside his mouth and draw straight lines down to make the teeth.

(I was using this for a product, that's why it's white;)  Ok, now let's color in a thin rectangle on each side of his mouth and color them in black.  Then you'll make a frown, hill, frown over his nose.  Watch me do it... Frown, hill, frown.  Now you try!

The last step is to color it in.  You'll only be using four colors really... Brown, tan, black and pink.  But you may color it how you wish!

Ok, now I'm back;)  See, look at your own drawing...  It's pretty good right?  I told you I could teach you how to draw!  

I've put the steps to make Scaredy Squirrel together on a printable for you!  If you'd like this FREEBIE, click on the printable below.

Click on the picture above to access this directed drawing FREEBIE!  

Once again, Happy Teacher's Appreciation to you and thanks for all you do! I'd love to hear how you like the Scaredy Squirrel directed drawing or any other comments you have!  Make sure to leave me some love in the comment section below;)

Until Next Time,